39 adventurers from the 5th Dartford Scout group traveled by rail, sea and bicycle to la Ferme Daulet, Gravelines, France for our Summer Camp. The weather was favourable for the journey and setting up of camp in a secluded walled garden, before the heavens opened for our one and only storm. Continue reading
Category Archives: Scout Blog
2013-07-20/21 – Dartford Festival
This weekend, blessed with warm, dry weather the 5th Dartford Scout Group represented Scouting in the Youth Zone at the Dartford Festival. We had a fantastic turnout from our leaders, running mini crossbows, paper aeroplanes, book & puzzle sales, face-painting and one-pole bridge.
2013-06-15 – District Scout Triathlon
In an event that takes so much organisation and planning, it would have been nice to see more Scouts turn out for this event, but for the Scouts that did, including 12 from the 5th, there were some excellent sporting effort made. The Earley Troop fielded two three man teams in the 12+ category, two 12+ individual entries and an under 12 team, whilst Burne Troop had an individual entry in both the under 12 and 12+ categories. 
Below, a few pictures from the event and the long awaited results…..
Individual
Under 12 Boys – 3rd Place – Sean Powley (Burne)
Over 12 Boys – 4th Place – Charlie Wilcox (Earley)
Over 12 Boys – 5th Place – Chris Roscoe (Burne)
Over 12 Boys – 7th Place – Jordan Fowler-Newnan (Earley)
Teams
Under 12 Boys – 2nd Place – Chris Wells & Toju Uwejamomere (Earley)
Over 12 Boys – 1st Place – Matt Randall, Tom Hannah & James O’Brien (Earley)
Over 12 Boys – 2nd Place – Angus Gardner, Henry McCarron & Ben Jones (Earley)
Well done to you all.
2013-06-10 – Miskin Award for 5th
In a presentation ceremony and tour of the facilities today, Maggie and Jim attended the Miskin Theatre, on behalf of the 5th Dartford Scout Group, to receive their Award Certificate for ‘Best Youth Organisation‘. We thank everyone concerned in the nomination and voting process for recognising the 5th’s continued commitment to the social, physical and mental development of the youth in our community through a balanced programme and everyday adventure.
2013-06-01 – County Gold Awards
Tonight Matt & James of the Earley-Troop attended a County presentation for the the Chief Scout Gold Award at Maling School, Maidstone. The VIP guest on this occasion was Tim Kidd, Chief Commissioner of England and the presentations were assisted by Dean Harding ACC Scouts. As always, Des Harris added some humor to the proceedings and James got the laugh of the evening when he volleyed one of Des’ jokes. 
Whilst at the presentation, James was also formally presented with his Kent Scout’s gold volunteer award, which recognises 100+ hrs of voluntary service to the community.
The following album captures a few highlights from the evening.
2013-05-31 – Chief Scout Gold
Tonight 3 members of the 5th Dartford Scout Group’s Earley-Troop received their Chief Scout Gold Award. Matthew, James and Tom were presented with their awards by DC Paul Abel & DSL Wayne Tompkinson. This award is the highest attainable in the Scout section and represents a significant effort – very well done lads.
2013-06-09 – Fun Day & AGM
Below – a few pictures from the day; If you’ve taken any photos at this event and would like to include them in our archive, please email them to: media@5thdartfordscouts.org.uk. Click here to view our annual section reports.
2013-05-11 – Archery Competition
National Archery Competition 2013 – Phasels Wood
For the second consecutive year 5th Dartford Scouts took part in the Scout National Archery competition at Phasels Wood Activity Centre, however with growing interest we doubled last entrance: 12 Scouts, 1 Explorer and 5 Leaders. This year saw the largest participant field of 397 competitors in the 20yard Target, Clout and Field competitions. During the times were waiting to compete the Scouts were able to use the excellent camp site facilities: Climbing, Zip-wire, Crate Staking, Trampolines as well as the assault course. Although not brilliant sunshine all the time, the weather was relatively kind to us enabling us to compete in the sun and have a dry pack away.
The seven weeks training that we provided on a Tuesday evening before the event paid dividends with comments made by the Field Captains that all our participants were “knowledgeable, knew what they were doing and were excellent participants”. I am pleased to report that as well as everyone thoroughly enjoying the three different archery disciplines; James achieved 2nd Place u14 Fields Targets, Matthew achieved 2nd Place Clout u14, 1st Place 20yds Target u14 as well as highest scoring u14 in the category of ‘Supplied Equipment’ and won a compound bow for the group.
Many thanks to Gary, Lynn, Jim, Maggie and Jason for volunteering their time running the practice sessions coaching the scouts, Tim for being our first-aider and camp lead whilst at the competition.
Also a special mention to Kevin Wells, John and Pauline Butler who helped us set up camp on Friday evening and to Colin Hart helping us to unload and pack away the equipment on our return on Sunday. This was greatly appreciated by all of the leaders making it a whole lot easier for us to take the scouts camping and attending these sort of competitions.
I will look to post the final results of all our competitors once they have been released. If you have any photographs of the weekend please forward them to Paul@5thDartfordScouts.org.uk so that we collate them in to a presentation.
Paul Boreham
2013-05-03 – Volunteer Gold for James
Tonight, the Earley-Troop’s James was presented with is Kent Scout’s Gold Volunteer Award. This award, issued by Kent County, recognizes Scouts who have committed to volunteering in excess of 100 hours and James is the first of the 5th’s Scouts to achieve this. Well done James!
Any Scouts who have not yet started volunteering your time, please click here to see the requirements for the awards and to download the log sheet.
2013-05-04 – Community Challenge
Today, 4 members of the Earley-Troop completed their Community Challenge award, by doing some garden work for local resident Mrs. Hershfield. The lads were only too happy to spend their Saturday morning digging over the vegetable patch and pressure washing the drive clear of unsightly moss. A good deed done and a badge well earned.